Live Play Data

Ashnod's Altar

· Artifact · Commander Masters (CMM)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

1203

Decks Running

650

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

68%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

5% of tracked Commander decks run Ashnod's Altar. When drawn, 68% of copies reach the battlefield, and the median first cast lands on turn 6.

Ashnod's Altar sits in 5% of the 12310 Commander decks tracked in live Playgroup games. That share reflects a deliberate deckbuilding choice: a free sacrifice outlet for colorless mana generation that fits any color identity, and its presence here skews heavily toward creature-token and sacrifice-synergy commanders.

The draw-to-play rate stands at 68%, meaning roughly seven in ten copies that reach a hand also reach the battlefield before the game ends. The median first cast is turn 6, later than its 3-mana cost might suggest. That spread is typical for a card that gets more valuable once a board state already exists, so players often hold it until creatures are in play to sacrifice.

Across 1121 tracked games the card shows a +9.0 percentage-point win-rate lift when cast versus when it sits in the library. The sample is large enough to treat this as a consistent directional signal. The commander distribution is notably broad: 526 distinct players have brought it to a tracked game, and no single contributor accounts for more than a small share of the data, lending that signal extra credibility.

At a glance

5% of tracked Commander decks include Ashnod's Altar
68% of drawn copies reach the battlefield before the game ends
T6 median first-cast turn, peaking at turns 5-7 in the distribution
73% battlefield stickiness once cast
+9.0pp win-rate lift when cast versus when left in the library
526 distinct players have brought it to a tracked game, indicating broad adoption

First-cast turn

n=195

11%

14%

16%

43%

T6-9

11%

T10+

Median 6 P25 4 · P75 7 · max 16

On curve 16% (21 / 195 cast on T3) Cast same turn as drawn 34%

The "good card" funnel

1204 brought · 526 players

Brought to game

1204

Ever drawn

286

Reached battlefield

195

Still on board at game end

143

68%

Of 1204 copies brought to games, 286 were drawn, 195 of those were cast, and the majority remained on the battlefield at game's end. The bottleneck is draw, not intent to cast.

≥ +2.3pp

Players who cast this card win 36% of the time (n=192) , vs 27% when it never left the library (n=813).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 28% (n=80) — about the same as leaving it in the library. Those players survived long enough to draw it, so the gap above is about the card resolving, not just about surviving.

Observed gap +9.0pp; 95% confidence interval +2.3pp to +15.7pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

323 instances

3.4%

Library

44.3%

Battlefield

22.9%

Graveyard

5.0%

Exile

Most Ashnod's Altars that were observed ended the game on the battlefield or in the graveyard after a sacrifice chain, with only a handful stranded in the library. That graveyard count reflects the card doing its job.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER // Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel 27 decks
2 Atla Palani, Nest Tender 24 decks
3 Teysa Karlov 22 decks
4 Krenko, Mob Boss 19 decks
5 Ygra, Eater of All 16 decks
6 Ashling, the Limitless 14 decks
7 Marneus Calgar 13 decks
8 Breya, Etherium Shaper 12 decks
9 Chatterfang, Squirrel General 11 decks
10 Silverquill, the Disputant 11 decks

The commander list spans five distinct color identities, from mono-black to five-color, confirming that Ashnod's Altar's colorless identity lets it slot into virtually any sacrifice-synergy shell.

Frequently Asked

How often is Ashnod's Altar drawn in a Commander game?

In 1121 tracked games where Ashnod's Altar was in the deck, the draw rate was 24%. That is consistent with what you expect from a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 286 copies that reached a hand, 68% were cast before the game ended.

What turn does Ashnod's Altar typically hit the battlefield?

Median first cast is turn 6, with the bulk of casts spread across turns 4 through 7. Only 16% of casts land exactly on curve (turn 3 for a 3-mana card), which reflects the reality that players often draw it mid-game rather than in the opening hand. When it is drawn, players hold it a median of 1 turn before casting, so the delay is largely about when they find it rather than choosing to wait.

Does casting Ashnod's Altar actually improve your win rate?

Directionally, yes. Decks that cast Ashnod's Altar won at a 36% normalized rate across 192 observed games. Decks where it sat in the library the whole game won at 27% across 813 games. That is a +9.0 percentage-point gap. The sample sizes for both buckets are large enough to treat this as a consistent signal, though Playgroup Live's dataset is still growing and we describe it as directional rather than definitive.

Which commanders most commonly run Ashnod's Altar?

Teysa Karlov, Atla Palani Nest Tender, Krenko Mob Boss, and Sephiroth top the Playgroup Live commander list. That spread across black-white death triggers, Naya egg recursion, mono-red token swarms, and mono-black sacrifice tells you the card earns its slot in any strategy that generates repeated creature deaths. Its colorless identity means no commander is locked out.

Is Ashnod's Altar legal in Commander and other formats?

Ashnod's Altar is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, Pauper, Pauper Commander, Duel Commander, Oathbreaker, and several other formats. It is not legal in Modern, Pioneer, Standard, or Alchemy. It has never appeared on the Commander ban list.

How concentrated is the Ashnod's Altar data across players?

The data is well spread. 526 distinct players have brought Ashnod's Altar to at least one tracked game on Playgroup Live, and the single largest contributor accounts for only a small fraction of all tracked instances. That breadth means the statistics reflect a real cross-section of the player base rather than one prolific pilot skewing the numbers.